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Heritage meets legacy - Family ties stretch across the skies

  • Published
  • By Capt. Wayne Capps
  • 315th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
CHARLESTON AFB, S.C. --  It is not often Airmen get the opportunity to fly side by side with members of their own family, but the Johnson family had just that chance on a recent humanitarian mission to Haiti.

Capt. Clinton Johnson, a reserve C-17 pilot with the 300th Airlift Squadron at Charleston AFB, S.C., had the recent opportunity to be accompanied on a mission by his long-time mentor and uncle, Col. Tony Johnson, an A-10 pilot and vice commander of the Air Force Reserve Command's 442nd Fighter Wing at Whiteman AFB, Mo.

Since an early age, Capt. Johnson was determined to be an Air Force pilot. "I think just seeing an African American in his position made me feel that the only barriers out there are the ones you set for yourself. Seeing someone from my family doing it... It showed me that I could do it," said Capt. Johnson. "It is pretty cool to fly with my mentor, the person I looked up to all my life."

Capt. Johnson reflecting on his desire to be a pilot and one of his earliest childhood memories said, "When I was three or four, he (Col. Johnson) was flying F-4s and I came to see him at an air show. I remember him bringing me to the front of the line and letting me sit in the cock pit to take a picture".

"When he graduated from pilot training, he gave me that picture," said the Colonel.

Flying space-available on the mission, Col. Johnson made it his goal to fly with his nephew before his retirement. "It is important for us as a family," said the elder Johnson.

The Colonel was all smiles on the mission, which was one of Capt. Johnson's first missions as an aircraft commander, saying "he is my brother's little boy! I try to keep a humble spirit, but I have to puff my chest out because I am so proud of him. He set the goal to do this when he was young and it is great to see him set this goal and achieve it."

Col. Johnson, the son of a share-cropper from Summerton, S.C. and Capt. Johnson are the only two aviators in their family.

Reflecting on the experience, Capt. Johnson said, "It is just pretty cool to get to fly him around now."